Not An Avenger
by PlatformNineAndThreeQuarters
Summary: Dr Amrita Ray, finally acclimatizing to her new life as a doctor working for a secret government agency, gets involved in a conflicts associated with the world's mightiest heroes.
1. 1 A New Job

1\. A New Job

Moving from India to the US was not easy. I had to acclimatise to a completely new life, new culture and new surroundings. On top of that I had to adjust to working in the environment of a secret government agency. It had been a month since I moved and started my medical internship at the SHIELD hospital in New York.

Everything was hush-hush there. You weren't supposed to ask a patient's name, let alone his medical history. Any injury, be it a gun shot, a stab wound or radiation injury were treated with no questions asked. It was convenient even for the doctors. Experimental drugs, surgeries in trial phases, unauthorised trials, everything was allowed here.

Despite my initial doubts, I was loving my new job. Though exhausting, the adrenaline kept me going through my 72 hour shifts. I was finally settling in, when I got my first field assignment.

I was working in the ER that not-so-busy day. I was already doodling on surgical dressings by the time Agent Coulson arrived. He spoke directly to my attending.

"Dr Davidson, I need a doctor, asap. We're leaving in 10 minutes. Don't need a good one, by the way." He left as soon as he said that.

My attending looked at us for 10 seconds before saying, "Ray, go to the helipad."

I followed her command and walked away quickly, feeling rather hurt. I am a good doctor, I told myself. Though, it turned out I wasn't very good at finding directions. I ended up getting lost and it took me 15 minutes to find the helipad. Agent Coulson was already inside the helicopter. He did not look happy.

"I'm sorry. I got lost." I said, climbing in. "I'm Dr Amrita Ray." I held out my hand.

"Get a map." He said curtly, without as much as looking at my hand.

I tried not to piss him off anymore during the rest of the flight. It was quite difficult sitting beside him, especially when he seemed to be taking offence at me breathing. He scowled at me when my phone rang. Damn! I should have switched it off.

"Hello?" I answered the phone, despite the formidable look from Agent Coulson.

"Hey, Dr Amrita. This is Tony Stark. Remember me?" He didn't wait for my answer. "I'm organising a Red Cross Society charity function tonight. I would really like you to come. Would you be able to make it?"

Tony Stark? How did he get my number? More importantly, why was he calling me?

"I'm sorry, Mr Stark. I'm out of town for work." I answered.

"Oh. That's fine. May be next time." He hung up. He sounded genuinely disappointed. What was happening?

"You know Stark?" Agent Coulson could not contain his curiosity.

"Umm… Not exactly. He was my patient two days ago, after that incident at the Stark industries. Of course, before he announced he was Iron man. He was brought in for first aid and investigation. There wasn't any major injury so I discharged him." I told him, trying to remember if anything unusual has happened, something to give him a reason to call me and invite me to a party.

We landed at the New Mexico base at twilight. We had to drive the rest of the way. Agent Coulson wasn't particularly happy about sharing his ride with me. But due to the recent SHIELD operational guidelines making it compulsory for at least one doctor to be present at a temporary SHIELD base, he had to endure.

I wondered why they needed to make a temporary base.

"So, where are we going?" I asked Agent Coulson.

He sighed. "An unidentifiable flying object was found to have landed 10 miles from her. That's where we are going."

Holy Crap! WE WERE GOING TO SEE A UFO!

He pulled up at a gas station. That's where the UFO was?

"Be right back" he said, putting the siphon in the tank and then walking towards the utility store.

Thinking he was going to be a while, I picked up my phone and dropped it in the process.

Great! I bent down to pick it up and when I got up, the scene had changed completely. Through the glass windows of the utility store, I saw Agent Coulson, kicking asses to two what-looked-like-robbers. Wow! He knew how to fight.

However, he didn't dee their third companion sneaking inti the store with a gun. Uh-oh!

I quickly got out of the car and grabbed a crowbar lying there. I snuck up to the gun man and ignoring my first instinct to hit him on the head (that might kill him), I hit him on the back.

Unfortunately, due to the limited strength of my small stature, it didn't have the effect I was hoping for. He turned around and pointed the gun at me. He was about to shoot when Coulson took him down with a taser.

My heart beat was still above 120 even when we were miles from the gas station. Agent Coulson had been really nice to me. He even offered me one of his donuts.

"It was very brave, what you did back there." He said, slowing down. I suppose we were approaching our destination.

"I'm sure you do that all the time." I tried to be modest.

"Well, it's my job. It's not yours."

I didn't say anything. I just looked at him, remembering hoe intimidating he looked earlier. No, he just looked like…. a nice person.

I noticed we had reached the base. I got out of the car and looked around in awe. We were surrounded by giant temporary structures filled with agents and technicians, in the middle of the dessert.

An agent (we called him Agent Haemorrhoids at the hospital) was briefing Coulson. Agent Sitwell, I remembered his name.

Not knowing where to go, I followed them into the clearing. In the centre of the clearing was a crater and at its centre was a…...hammer? So, this was the UFO? Technicians were surrounding it, scanning it from every angle with every possible instrument.

I looked at the hammer closely. It reminded me of something I'd seen before. There were inscriptions on its handle in some unrecognisable script.

I remembered now. I had seen it in my book on Norse mythology. Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor, the god of thunder. It was supposed to be enchanted so it could be lifted only by Thor.

"Agent Coulson?" I said, walking towards them.

"Yes?" he responded, much to the surprise of Sitwell.

"Why wasn't this… um…. UFO moved to the base? Surely, it would have been easier than setting all this up."

"Easier said than done." He answered." This thing isn't easy to lift. Our biggest machines couldn't move it."

All I could do was blink in surprise.


	2. 2 The Intruder

Intruder

"So, what you mean to tell me is that this UFO is a magic hammer of the god of thunder." asked Coulson. Somehow his tone managed to intimidate me again.

"No, I'm not saying that." Not directly at least. I was a scientist but unlike Coulson, I was broad minded.

"I know Indians love religion and mythology, Dr Ray, but this is taking it too far." He said as he turned to leave.

He was the one who was taking it too far, I fumed. I was merely offering a suggestion.

Fine, do your work your way and I'll do mine my way, which I realised, was… nothing. I sighed. This was going to be a long night, I thought to myself.

That was when I heard the commotion. The alarm had gone off. Someone had breached the outer fence.

Unable to contain my curiosity, I went to the security room. Coulson and Sitwell were already there. They were looking at the screen, seeing a big, muscular guy beat up trained SHIELD like they were toddlers.

"Who is he?" I asked.

"Probably the god of thunder coming to reclaim his hammer." Sitwell smirked.

Jerk.

The guy was getting closer and closer to the hammer. Nobody was able to stop him.

"Shall I give the order to shoot, sir?" Sitwell asked.

"No, let's see what he does first." Coulson replied.

The guy had finally reached the hammer. Not to anyone surprise, he tried to lift it and not to anyone's surprise, he wasn't able to. Judging by the look on his face, he WAS surprised. Did he really think he could lift the object that even SHIELD's heavy machinery couldn't budge?

"Arrest him." Ordered agent Coulson. He had had enough of this nonsense.

The guy didn't put up a fight when the SHIELD agents arrested him and locked him in a…. temporary glass prison?

Agent Coulson went to interrogate him and I was left with Sitwell.

"So, what have you found out about the… object?" I refrained from using the word 'hammer'.

"Aside from the fact that it belongs to a Norse god?" he said, mocking me.

"Yeah. Aside from that. What else you got?" I snapped at him. I was angry now. I didn't tell them to get down on their knees and start worshipping the hammer. It was merely a theory for some speculation.

I left the security room in a huff. The cool dessert air did little to cool down my mind.

Then I saw him. A man, dressed in rather outrageous green clothes, who was trying to lift the hammer!

God! Was there a hammer lifting contest that I didn't know of?

What surprised me even more was that he was in direct view of the SHIELD officers standing guard. Why weren't they stopping him?

"Is he supposed to be here?" I asked an agent, pointing towards the guy.

"Who?" he asked, looking straight at him.

"The guy in the green costume." Was he acting dumb on purpose?

He looked at me in way that I was the one saying dumb things. "Are you all right, ma'am?

I was beyond angry now. Obviously, they were pretending to not see him. The green costume guy had to be in on this too. But why were they doing this? Did Agent Sitwell set this up?

The one thing I knew for sure was that Agent Coulson would have nothing to do with this and he wouldn't be happy about it either.

I quickly walked up to the green costume guy and confronted him. "Sir, I'm sure you'd have a reason to be inside this enclosure. Would you come with me and explain it to Agent Coulson?"

He slowly turned his head to look at me. He looked enraged. "You mortal fool. You have the audacity to tell me what do, Loki, the rightful king of Asgard?"

Okay. Not what I'd expected.

I tried to slowly back away, but before I could he grabbed my throat with his hand and lifted me up. I wanted to scream for help, but couldn't. I struggled to breathe as I tried to loosen his grip. But even digging my fingernails into his skin with all my strength had no effect on him. I knew I wouldn't last long.

I swung my hands, searching for anything that could help me. Suddenly, my fingers touched something solid. I quickly grasped it and flung it with full force on my attacker. It hit him on the head and judging by the way he staggered back, it hit him hard.

I was finally able to breathe. I sat down on the floor and did just that. Breathe.

"Dr Ray. Are you all right?" I recognised the familiar voice, more shaken up that usual.

"What do you think, Agent Coulson?" I managed to snap at him in between the gasps. Then, I remembered. "He tried to kill me." I said, pointing at the direction in which the man had fallen.

But there was no one there. I looked at Agent Coulson, confused.

But he wasn't looking where I had pointed. He wasn't even looking at my face. He and everyone else, were looking, open mouthed, at my hand.

I looked down to see, grasped tightly in my hand, the hammer!

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw our first intruder, staring out of his glass prison, looking at me in amazement.


	3. 3 The Norse God

3\. The Norse God

"I don't how I picked it up, all right?" I said for the tenth time.

We were sitting inside the security room, observing the footage. I was surprised to see myself, walking to the hammer, talking to thin air and then getting suspended in the air magically. So, those guys really couldn't see him. But, towards the end, after I had hit him with the hammer, he appeared on the footage, only for a second, but long enough to prove he was there.

I remember what he called himself- 'Loki'. He was another Norse God, wasn't he? The evil one. I kept this information to myself. I had been ridiculed enough about Thor's hammer.

As for the hammer, others still couldn't lift it. But when I lifted it didn't feel like more than 2 pounds.

"Maybe it can only be lifted by women. Some sort of DNA fingerprinting." I offered.

"No. Agent 13 had tried to lift it. And she's a lot stronger than you." Sitwell countered.

"I don't know, then." I gave up. Honestly, I wasn't even interested. "So, are you going to let me psych-evaluate our prisoner, or not? I asked Coulson. I really wanted to have a chance to talk to him. The way he had looked at me a few minutes ago, it seemed that he knew something about all this.

"There is no need to psych-evaluate him right now." Agent Coulson denied my request.

"But according to SHIELD protocol 91, a non-hostile prisoner is supposed to psych-evaluated, if his identity isn't confirmed…..."

"There are more pressing matters right now." He cut me off.

"I can't help you in those pressing matters. What I can do and am qualified to do is a psychological evaluation, which I'm going to do right now." Saying this I started walking towards the glassed room, hoping I wouldn't be stopped.

I wasn't. So far, so good.

I opened the door and went inside. They had him handcuffed, but he got down to his knees before speaking," My lady, I apologise for not being able to properly greet the soul worthy of Mjolnir."

I blinked twice. It took me a moment to recompose myself. This was one crazy day.

He didn't seem to notice my awkwardness. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm…."

"Thor?" I guessed. "The god of thunder?"

I remembered Sitwell's remark 'The god of thunder coming to reclaim his hammer.'

"I'm not a god." He replied, smiling. "Our people certainly have a much longer life span than humans and are undeniably much stronger, but the ancient Norsemen exaggerated our powers a little too much."

I nodded trying to look calm. At this point, after everything I had seen today, I was very much inclined to believe that.

"Why couldn't you lift the hammer?" I asked.

"It can only be lifted by the worthy. I have proved myself unworthy by starting a war between two worlds." He replied, looking ashamed.

Okay. There were more worlds now.

"That man who tried to kill me, he said he was Loki. Was is true?"

He nodded. "He is my brother. He wants to be king of Asgard. That can only be possible on the event of my death. He came here to claim the power of the hammer and use it against me. He failed. Now he would use some other means to achieve his goals. He would take your hit lightly, too." He told me, grimly.

I was about ask something else when I heard a loud crash. Looking outside the window, I saw a giant metallic humanoid form on the dessert landscape. Was it some new version of Tony Stark's Iron man?

"The Destroyer." Thor said. "You'll have to release me now."

"I can't…." I began.

"Listen to me. Loki isn't going to stop until he gets what he wants. Lives will be lost." He looked at me intently.

"Screw it." I groaned.

I stole the keys from the unsuspecting guard. Everyone was too busy with the new development on the scene to notice me releasing Thor. After thanking me he ran towards the direction of the Destroyer. I had no idea how he was planning to stop it.

By now everyone had noticed that he had escaped. Agent Coulson looked at me accusingly, but didn't say anything.

Thor had stopped running and was 20 feet away from the Destroyer.

"Loki." He shouted. "This is between you and me. Destroy me if you wish. But the humans are innocent. Spare them."

That was his plan!? He was the fake god of thunder for god's sake! But if this act didn't prove him worthy, I didn't know what would.

The destroyer held his open hand towards Thor. If I had learnt anything by watching that Iron man footage on television last night, it was that now Thor was going to be blasted by a laser.

I quickly grabbed the big gun lying next to me in the clearing, ran a few metres and took a shot at the destroyer. It turned out to be a bazooka.

Unfortunately, it's blast didn't even scratch the metal giant. More importantly, now his hand was pointing right at me.

As soon as it fired, someone pushed me out of the way. "Are you out of your mind?" Agent Coulson shouted beside me.

I opened my mouth to thank him, when something wooshed past us. The next thing I saw was Thor, flying up in sky with his hammer in his hand. The destroyer was flying in pursuit. Then, there was a blinding flash of lightening followed by thunder, and both of them had vanished.

Everyone was looking at the sky, open mouthed.

I got up and dusted myself. "Well, it was quite a day, wasn't it?" I said walking towards the car in which we had come here.


	4. 4 Poisoned

Poisoned

"Do you have an appointment, madam?" I heard someone say as I entered the Stark Tower.

Did I have an appointment? No, I most certainly did not. The only reason I was here was because apparently the director of SHIELD thought that Mr. Stark wouldn't mind if I randomly showed up at his house for his medical follow-up, even though there was nothing wrong with him last month, when he was my patient. (Except of course the metallic shards close to his heart, which his palladium arc reactor kept at bay. It didn't count, because medically or surgically we couldn't do anything about it without killing him.)

I searched around for the source of the voice that addressed me, internally cursing Agent Coulson. He was the reason I was in this situation. If he hadn't told Director Fury about the party invitation Stark had extended to me, I wouldn't be here.

"Ma'am do you have an appointment?" the voice repeated. It was then I realized that I was an artificial intelligence.

"No, I'm here for a follow-up. Mr. Stark was my patient last month. I'm Dr Ray." I told the AI, waiting to be asked to leave. God, I hated such situations.

Just then the elevator door opened and guess who came out? Tony Stark!

"Dr Amrita! What a pleasant surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure?" He shook my hand. I wasn't kicked out yet. It was a good start.

"Mr. Stark, I'm here for a follow-up physical exam." I got straight to the point.

"Mr. Stark was my father. My name is Tony. And since when do SHIELD doctors go on personal follow-up visits?"

Since neve, I wanted to say. "It seems Director Fury is very much concerned about your health."

"He is, isn't he? Just yesterday, he rallied a proposition according to which my iron man suits would be handed over to SHIELD, in case I'm not fit enough to wield them."

So, that's what it was all about. Fury wanted the Iron am suits. But was he really sick? There was nothing on the investigations last time.

"So, you'll not let me do the exam?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"I'm actually heading out, right now. There's some party I'm hosting and my secretary thinks that I should show up. Why don't you come along too?"

This was the second party invitation he had extended to me this month. But unlike last time, I wasn't clueless. Tony Stark was a well-known playboy, who frequently invited girls he was interested in, to his parties. I didn't know when his type changed from hot supermodels to nerdy doctors, but he was definitely not my type. I didn't care if it helped Nick Fury in his agenda to acquire the Iron man suits, I wasn't having any more of it.

"Mr. Stark…." I began.

"Tony." He cut me off.

"Mr. Stark." I didn't budge. "Given the interest Director Fury has in you, I have a feeling that we will have to meet professionally many times. I just want to make it clear that I won't be tolerating any kind of…. Non-professional things. I'm not the kind of girl who, …. well I'm not that kind of girl." My voice sounded really confident when I began, but towards the end, … not the kind of effect I had wanted.

He looked at me with a smirk on his face. It didn't help that I was barely 5' 3".

"I know you're not that kind of girl, trust me. I can spot those girls from miles away. You are the kind of girl, who needs to loosen up. You're kind of stuck-up." He said, as he walked away.

"Jerk." I muttered under my breath before walking out of the building.

…

"I gave you one job. One job and you couldn't even do that." I was in Director Fury's cabin, giving him the 'mission report'.

"It wasn't my job to acquire the Iron man suits for you." I countered. "You didn't even tell me why…."

"I never tell my agents 'why', I only tell them 'what'."

"I'm not an agent."

"No, you're a doctor. You met him right? Gathered anything a doctor might have?"

I hadn't expected that question. I racked my brain for the image of Tony Stark. "He was paler than the last time. Respiratory rate was faster. I think he had thrombophlebitis in his right jugular." How had I not noticed it before?

"Uh uh? And what does that tell you?"

"Heavy metal poisoning." How dumb could I have been? He had an entire piece of palladium inside his chest.

"First time you thought of that?" He was mocking me now. I deserved it, I guess. He was my patient and I discharged him without even thinking about the consequences of a block of palladium in his chest.

Fury's tone changed on seeing the expression on my face. "Look we all make mistakes. But the best of us learn from them and correct them. Now, I don't want you moping over this. I want you to go to that arrogant man and make him see the reality of the situation. And do everything you have to keep him alive. He is too valuable to die like that."

I nodded and walked out of his office.

Nicholas J. Fury had known my patient was dying before I did. What a great doctor I'm becoming!

I was even wrong about the reason he was so interested in Stark. He was not after the Iron man. He genuinely cared for him. His stint to get his hands on the suit might have been to prevent Tony from using his suit too much, as it was definitely deteriorating his health.

I searched through all medical journals to find the cure for palladium poisoning. There was none. The exposure had to be stopped which was not possible in this case. Dialysis could be a temporary cure.

I knew I had to get back to the Stark tower. God know what kind of humiliation I'll have to endure after what I said last time.


	5. 5 Replacement

2\. Replaced

Tony Stark was out managing a terrorist attack in Mexico when I arrived at Stark Tower.

"He would be back soon. Would you like to wait?" asked the red head who received me. I answered in affirmative. "I'm Pepper Potts, his secretary, his ex-secretary now. He's just made me the CEO."

So, Tony was aware about his impending death.

I noticed Ms. Potts was staring at me, curiously. I raised my eyebrow, questioningly.

"I'm sorry." She apologized, flustered. "It's just that you look so much like her."

"Like whom?" I asked.

"Achara Stark, Tony's adoptive sister. She died in a car crash along with her parents when Tony was about 20."

"Oh!" I exclaimed. So, that was the reason behind his unexplained interest in me. I reminded him of his sister!

Just then, another beautiful red head entered the room.

"Ms. Potts, I need your initials in these documents." She addressed Pepper, handing her a file.

"Sure." She answered. "Dr Ray, this is Natalie Rushman, Tony's new secretary."

No, it was not. I knew very well who she was, Natasha Romanoff, highly efficient SHIELD agent, more commonly known as the Black Widow. So, that's how Fury knew about Tony's illness.

As if on cue, Tony Stark flew inside the room at that moment, wearing his suit.

"Ah! Look who it is. My favorite doctor." He said through his mask.

"You owe me that physical exam." I reminded him.

"Oh, yes. Would you ladies mind giving us some privacy?" he addressed the red heads.

After they left, he continued. "You know what, this suit seems to be stuck." Gesturing towards his metal armor.

"There is really no reason to avoid this. I already know about the palladium poisoning."

He looked at me for a few seconds, clearly surprised at my knowledge of his condition. He dismantled his suit and sat down on the couch.

"Have you even tried to do anything about it?" I asked, examining his neck veins.

He gave me an I'm-not-stupid look. "I've run simulation on every known element to replace palladium. Nothing can replace it. So, basically the device that's keeping me alive is also killing me. I've tried finding chelating agents, but there are none available pharmacologically, but there is kale juice and I'm drinking 60 ounces of that shit daily." He concluded.

"Thought about seeing a doctor?"

"I don't trust doctors."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, you'll need to start trusting doctors now."

"Okay, Let's start with you." He said.

"That's sweet. But you really should trust anyone just because they happen to look like your sister." I regretted it as soon as I said it.

His face turned grim. "Pepper told you?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have…."

"It's all right. And you don't just look like my sister. You're as arrogant and obnoxious as she was, coming here thinking you can do anything to help me."

Coming from Tony Stark, that might have as well been a compliment.

"You're right. I can't do anything about it. But you can. It's your life. You can't just give up after running simulation on every known element. You made an arc reactor in a cave, for god's sake. Surely, there must be something else. Some coordinate compound, some alloy…"

"Alloy." He said more to himself than me. "Alloy. Alloy. Alloy." He chanted walking across the room. "Why didn't I think of this before?"

"Did you even try?" I mocked him.

"What do you think, lady? I have a death wish?"

"I don't know, maybe the palladium is messing with your mind."

"Yeah, that must be it. Maybe I can replace the palladium with a vibranium-platinum alloy. What do you think JARVIS?"

"Yes, sir. I might just work." Replied the AI.

At that moment I knew, Tony Stark was no longer dying.


	6. 6 The Consultant

The Consultant

"But why does it always have to be me?" I asked.

"Because he's got a soft spot for you. He might just say 'yes'." Answered Agent Coulson. This time he was not the one who betrayed me. It was Agent Romanoff. She told the Director about my resemblance to Tony's sister.

"I'll have to fly all the to Miami for this." I protested.

"You'll get research opportunities if you pull this off, remember that." He told me.

I remembered that as I entered Tony's lab at his mansion in Miami. He was working on a new Iron man suit.

Really? How many does he need? I thought to myself as I saw the display with its recent addition of Mark 15.

I almost squealed when he shot a laser from his robotic hand, tearing to wall next to me. "Oh my god! Be careful, please."

"Great thing are not achieved by being careful." He said. "Another follow up visit?"

"No, this is a non-medical visit." Though, I was observing his health subconsciously. He looked much better, no longer pale, the thrombophlebitis had disappeared. Looked like the alloy was working perfectly.

"Nick Fury has turned you into his errand girl, hasn't he?"

"Maybe he thinks you might think twice before blowing me up with that laser." I joked.

"I might. So, what is this about?" he was curious.

"Well, SHIELD has launched an Avengers Initiative. You know, bringing together the world's 'heroes' in case they are needed to avoid some major disaster."

"So, they want me to join? Uh, okay, but I have some conditions…." He began.

"That's the thing. You did not clear the evaluation. According to the report you are impulsive and not a team player…."

"When the hell was I even evaluated? Who evaluated me?" He looked genuinely shocked.

"Agent Romanoff. She was undercover as your secretary, Natalie Rushman."

"That b****."

"Language." I warned him.

"Sorry." He said. "But they sent you here. That means they want be for something."

"Yes, they want you to be a consultant."

"A consultant?"

"Yes, for the tech stuff and occasionally for the superhero stuff, if they need you."

He just looked at me blankly. "Would you lose your job if I say 'no'?"

"Would you say 'yes' I would?"

"Just tell me."

"No, I won't lose my job. But I might get some pretty exciting research opportunities if you say 'yes'." I looked at him with my puppy dog eyes.

He sighed. "All right. I assume you have an assignment for me now."

"You assume right." He actually said 'yes'. Wow. "It's more of a request than an assignment. The World Security Council considers Blonsky a candidate for the Avengers Initiative. He is currently in captivity of General Ross. Director Fury wants you to talk to Ross and retrieve Blonsky for SHIELD."

"So, the Abomination is an ideal candidate for this thing, and I'm not? Who are they recruiting superheroes or supervillains?"

"Hey, I didn't do the sorting." I defended myself. "And I've heard you outdid yourself pissing off the World Security Council."

"Okay, so how am I supposed to talk to him? Use some code language, manipulate him, prepare a presentation?"

"Oh no. Just be yourself." I told him.

"All right, then. I'll just be myself."

I smiled. If Tony would really be himself, there was no freakin' way Ross would hand over Blonsky to SHIELD, exactly as Fury had wanted.

He couldn't directly refuse the World Security Council, could he?


	7. 7 The Tesserect

1\. The Tesserect

"It's an emergency. Call me." Experience had taught me that receiving such a text from Tony Stark meant probably nothing serious. He obviously hadn't heard the story of the boy that cried wolf. However, against my instincts, I called him.

"Hey, honey. I'm really in a fix here. I've found this great lingerie store and its Pepper's birthday tomorrow. Do you think…."

"Okay. Let me stop you right there. A- This definitely not an emergency. B- I'm in middle of an important research, taking a break from my residency which, by the way, is very important to me. C- I'm working in a secret government facility where cell phone use is restricted to minimum. You see where I'm going with this?"

"All right Ms. I'm-too-busy-to-talk. Won't disturb you again." He hung up before I could say anything. He was audibly hurt.

I hated this part. I wondered why I ever signed up for this research. I've been holed up in this jail like research facility with practically no contact with the outside world, for 3 months. I didn't blame Tony for those 'emergency calls'. I knew he missed me. I missed him too. My eccentric billionaire friend who was occasionally a superhero. But I couldn't afford to get any more warnings on my cellphone usage otherwise I'll lose the privilege entirely.

At least the research was going somewhere. I had been assigned to study the biological effects of low doses of Tesserect energy. The Tesserect is a mystical object (no one really knows anything about it, except that it is a high energy source), which has been in SHIELD's possession for some time.

In the first two months, the mice died even on the lowest exposure possible. Then unfortunately (or fortunately) an accident occurred with a physicist who was working with Dr Selvig on the Tesserect radiation studies. He exposed himself to the Tesserect for a little bit too long and…. well… he died.

It was his cadaver that really boosted my research. I was able to identify most of the biochemical and physiological changes of Tesserect energy on the human body. All I had got from mice was roasted meat. (I'm a vegetarian by the way, so - no use.)

And today I was getting even ahead. I had subconsciously remembered that all of Dr Pavlov's reports (that's the physicist, God rest his soul.) had been consistent with another set of reports I had seen before. The only problem was that I couldn't remember whose reports they were. So I had to basically go through the files of every patient I'd ever treated. I was getting really monotonous.

I remembered how it was only a year ago that I'd become a doctor and got this internship at SHIELD through the USMLE. How drastically my life had changed in the past year. I was musing about my life in India when the alarm rang. I was wondering I it was a drill, when Agent Coulson burst into my office.

"This is not a drill, ma'am. You have to evacuate no. Preserve as much of your research as you can."

"What happened? Why are we evacuating?" My voice still had its accent, even after a year of living here.

"The Tesserect is unstable. Its emitting low amplitude gamma radiations spontaneously. We are afraid if Dr Selvig is not able to contain it, there might not be a minimum safe distance."

"Let me help." Such life endangering situations were supposed to be a part of working at SHIELD.

"This is not your field, Amrita. There is nothing you can do by staying here." He addressed me with my first name. We had become good friends on our field trip to New Mexico but Phil was always professional. He was obviously worried.

I could be stubborn if I wanted to. But I realized that he was right. I was not a physicist. I knew nothing about the workings of the Tesserect. (to be fair, neither did they)

"You can help by taking the phase 2 prototypes to safety." He offered, seeing the dejected look on my face.

I wasn't really a fan of phase 2. I basically meant using the energy of Tesserect to build weapons.

"Is that really a priority right now?" I asked.

"Director Fury's orders." He simply stated.

I sighed and went off to see to my given assignment.

The task wasn't as easy as it sounded. As soon as I drove my van filled with weapons out of the facility, it was hit by what I would call the mixture of an earthquake and a tornado.

Hopefully, the campus would have been cleared by now. It was completely destroyed by the impact. Acres of solid infrastructure blown to dust like sand castles.

However, the 'earthnado' didn't stop there. The underground tunnel on which I was driving, started collapsing. I felt like I was playing I racing car game like I played when I was a kid. Except this was an actual race against death. I saw vans alongside mine, driven by SHIELD techs getting trapped beneath the debris. There was nothing I could do to help them. I drove on with full speed.

It was a good half an hour later I actually felt safe and my heart rate returned to normal, though I had left the 'earthnado' behind twenty minutes ago. Remember when I was talking about life and death situations working at SHIELD, before? Screw that! This was the real shit!

I contacted the SHIELD HQ and learned that the earthquake was due to the Tesserect. It was used from outer space to open a portal here. An alien called Loki came out from it and stole the Tesserect.

I thought after all the strange and crazy things I've seen, nothing would surprise me now. I've been constantly proven wrong.

Anyways, we had orders to reach the New York base, so I continued driving.

The rest of the drive was uneventful, except a call from Tony. He had learned about the explosion at the facility, and was worried about me. I reassured him and even helped him pick out a gift for Pepper. After much persuasion, he agreed not to give her lingerie and settled on jewelry.

He was curious about what actually happened. I couldn't tell him, of course. Though I thought he would soon be brought in on the loop. He was Iron man, after all. And SHIELD wanted to retrieve a highly valuable stolen item from an all-powerful alien. His help would be needed.

I wondered if it would be enough.


	8. 8 The Search

8\. The Search

I reached the hellicarrier earlier than most and already had a plan to track down the Tesserect. I tried to explain it the Director Fury.

"So, you're saying that you can find the Tesserect by analyzing the biological effect it has on people?"

"I know it sound stupid when you say it like that. But the only other way you have of locating it is gamma radiation, which are rather inconsistent. However, this biological effect is consistent. The Tesserect changes the living organic method irreversibly by…."

"All right." He interrupted me. "Enough of the science mumbo-jumbo. If you think you can find the Tesserect, that is good enough for me. Go ahead with it."

I quickly started configuring all the vita-ray detectors and got the program made by one of the facial-recognition techs on the bridge.

My device was all set up, when they entered. I had no idea that Fury was planning to call them. The Avengers initiative was scrapped before he could do anything about it. Dr. Bruce Banner and Captain Steven G. Rogers almost looked like normal people entering the hellicarrier.

I had read their files of course. One of them was a gamma irradiated scientist who turned into a green rage monster when agitated. Other was a 100-year-old war hero of world war 2, who looked no older than 25.

Suddenly, my monitor began to beep. I looked down to see three Tesserect exposed figures on the screen. One of them was me with slight exposure limited to the skin on my face and arms. Nick Fury's right hand appeared a dark shade of red. He had transferred the Tesserect bare-handedly when Loki had attacked. The third figure was Captain Rogers. He was dark red head to toe. It was because of him the monitor had started beeping. His Tesserect exposure was more than 90%!

"Oh!" I exclaimed audibly. They were HIS scans I had remembered seeing. But when did he manage to get such high level of Tesserect exposure? And how did he survive it?

I didn't realize I was staring at him until he looked back at me. For some reason I couldn't look away. His eyes… They were pretty intense… icy blue with a shimmering moss green.

Fury called me at that moment, "Dr Ray, where are you with the biological trace?"

Reluctantly, with great effort, I averted my gaze. "The devices are configured. I'll start scanning the areas now."

I looked at Dr. Banner. He looked quite nervous. Maybe he was afraid of losing control. "What about a race doctor? Let's see who finds the cube first." He walked away to his lab before I could reply.

It was then I remembered Dr. Banner was a pioneer of gamma radiation. Fury had brought him in to find the cube, not because of the monster.

I turned to return to my work and couldn't help but notice Steve Rogers leaning in on one of the facial recognition cubicle. I doubted if he understood anything. There weren't any computers back in his day, let alone facial recognition. Once again I caught myself staring at him. He would at least be 6'2" with a perfectly muscled body. I had never seen him before and had an older image of him in mind. Certainly, not hundred years old, but more towards the middle age. And here he was looking no older than someone in his early twenties.

I tried to recall all the other attempts SHIELD had made at the super serum program. None were as successful as him. Dr. Erskine's formulae had a secret ingredient which no one knew about.

Oh My God! I just figured out the secret ingredient. Tesserect energy!

I had gasped audibly at my discovery. People around me were looking at me expectantly, including Director Fury and Captain Rogers.

I debated internally whether to tell them or not. I decided against it. I didn't have any proof yet.

I simply shook my head and got down to work. I started scanning spectrometers for vita-rays all over the world. It wasn't as tedious as it sounds. Very few people in the world had been exposed to Tesserect energy. Whenever I found someone, I simply cross checked their details from the SHIELD database.

After about half an hour, I got an unexplained hit, in Stutgaurd, Germany. It was much just slight exposure on superficial layers of skin on the face. But a normal person wouldn't have even that much exposure, considering how heavily guarded SHIELD had kept the Tesserect.

I quickly ran to a facial recognition cubicle and entered the coordinates. And guess who I found in an outrageously green costume?

It looked like I won the race.


	9. 9 The Conflict

9\. The Conflict

"What if he doesn't have the cube?" asked Agent Romanoff, as she and Captain Rogers were prepping to fly to Germany in one of the jets.

"Who would he give it to? He came here alone through that portal." Countered Rogers. He was wearing a red, white and blue outfit, which honestly looked more like a costume than a uniform. It was Agent Coulson's improvisation on his old uniform. Personally, I wasn't a fan.

"He obviously isn't working alone. He has that magic scepter that turns people into his slaves. He can give it to Agent Barton." She was obviously hurting. Agent Barton was one of the few people who were close to her, and now he was a personal performing monkey to Loki.

"Can you find Barton?" Captain Rogers asked me. This was the first time he was talking directly to me and I found myself at the loss of words.

"I….um…. If he has a trace, it is not detectable from here, I'll have to get the device closer." I stuttered.

He is a 100 years old and he is wearing a stupid costume. 100 years old. Stupid costume. I chanted to myself.

Still, I didn't think many people could carry that outfit the way he did.

"Then, you'll have to come with us." He said, in his commanding military voice.

"I don't believe I have a visa for Germany." I half-joked.

Though it wasn't funny, I saw a ghost of smile, playing at the corners of his lips as he walked away.

I don't think I can justifiably explain what happened in Germany, but let me try. Loki had gathered hundreds of civilians inside an auditorium and was giving them a show of his powers, threatening them. Pretty stupid, if you ask me. It was like he wanted to get caught.

He was just about to kill a civilian, when Captain swooped in and saved the day, just about. Loki turned out to be an equal match for him. They were throwing punches on each other when Tony arrived wearing his Iron man suit, making a rather dramatic entry. Loki surrendered seeing himself outnumbered and all was well in the world.

Except it wasn't. As Natasha had feared, Loki didn't have the Tesserect. And I was not able to trace out Barton.

Loki looked even more malicious than the last time I saw him. I was in New Mexico, about a year ago, where I had gone on a field assignment with Agent Coulson to the landing site of an UFO. (later it turned out to Thor's hammer.)

Loki had used his illusion to get past the security around the landing site and was trying to lift Thor's hammer. Somehow, I was able to see past his illusions and foolishly confronted him about his reason to be there. Being the arrogant 'god' he was, he took offence and tried to strangulate me with his hands. In desperation for life, I picked up the hammer and hit him. He vanished after that but his illusion was broken long enough for cameras to record his presence. A big fuss was mode over me able to lift the hammer when even heavy duty machines failed in the task.

That reminded me. Loki could vanish. Why didn't he use his teleportive powers this time?

I walked up to Tony, who was talking to Rogers (or rather trying to talk to him without insulting him, and miserably failing). Steve was too concentrated on watching guard over Loki and was barely listening to what he was saying.

He looked at me as I approached. "Any progress in finding the cube?" he asked.

I looked at Loki. Couldn't discuss strategy in front of the enemy.

He nodded acknowledgingly.

"Can I talk to Tony for a minute?'

"Don't need his permission for that." Tony interjected, already walking towards the other end of the jet.

I looked apologetically at Steve. He smiled at me, looking more relieved than he should.

"He can teleport." I said, as I approached Tony.

"Teleport?" He asked skeptically. He obviously hasn't had as much experience as I had with supernatural.

"He is here because he wants to be here, Tony. Those bondages can't hold him against his will."

"Don't be ridiculous, Ams. He is here because I would kick his as if he tries to escape. And there is no such thing as teleportation. Its scientifically impossible. Even his stick isn't magic. It's obviously some kind to high energy laser generator."

"A laser generator that can hypnotize people?"

"Why are we talking about this nutbag, anyway? I haven't seen you in three months." He said, pulling me into a hug. He obviously didn't have anything to counter me.

"I missed you." I told him, pulling away.

"Really? Didn't seem like it." He commented.

"Don't be so hard on her." Said Natasha, coming towards, putting the plane on autopilot. "SHIELD has very strict rules at research facilities. All the calls are monitored. I really enjoyed listening to whiny voice, Stark."

Tony was about to reply with something nasty, when something hit the roof of the jet.

"Is it a bird?" Steve called out from the other side of the plane.

"It's something much larger than a bird." Said Tony, opening the latch door on top.

And the god of thunder entered our jet.

He saw Loki and started walking towards him with a determined face. Tony tried to stop him but Thor pushed him aside like a rag doll, even in his Iron man suit.

Steve braced himself for a fight. Natasha was closing the latch door and stabilizing the plane.

"Thor." I called out, hoping he remembered me from the last time we met.

He turned towards me and bent down on his knee. "My lady, forgive me for this rude interruption."

Okay, he did remember me.

I heard Tony gear up his suit. "Stop." I told him. "There is no need for a fight. We'll talk this out."

He didn't stand down.

I sighed. This was going to be difficult.


	10. 10 The Forced Alliance

10\. The Forced Alliance

After a 2-hour flight with three testosterone fueled alpha males and a female with more than requires estrogen (God, she was beautiful.), we reached the hellicarrier.

The atmosphere had been more tense than an US-Russia conference during the cold war. I flinched even at the slightest movements. I knew if they would start fighting there, the jet was going down.

With much difficulty, I had convinced Tony that Thor had come here to 'put an end to Loki's schemes' (in his own words) and was essentially on our side. Still, he was angry about the thrust he had given him.

I lied down on the couch in the lounge when I heard a knock. It was Captain Rogers.

"They are meeting for a conference in fifteen minutes." He informed me.

"I'm not an agent, Captain."

He smiled. He had a beautiful smile. "Call me Steve. And it doesn't matter if you're an agent or not, you're as involved in all this as any of us." He said.

He had me at the smile. "All right. But we have fifteen minutes, right?" I wanted to talk to you about something. Would you sit down?"

He came and sat down on the chair opposite to me. This time I didn't tell myself that he was a hundred years old. He clearly wasn't. He was just a young man who had wound up in a time and place he didn't understand.

And the outfit? It kind of looked nice on him.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" he said, bringing me out of my trance. I realized I had been staring. Again.

"I, umm…. There was something I found out when I was looking for the Tesserect. I think the secret ingredient in your super serum was Tesserect energy."

He looked at me for one long moment. "Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure. Your scans match my research almost completely. Though I don't have any solid proof, if that's what you are asking."

"Well, it makes sense, doesn't it?"

"Except about one thing. The amount of Tesserect exposure you've had is enough to fry 10 people. I wish to find out the reason. After all this is over, would you mind coming in the hospital for the few tests?"

He didn't answer my question. "Do you want to recreate the serum for SHIELD?"

I hadn't really thought about it. "No." I said. "That isn't my field. I'm more interested in the biological component. Someone else at SHIELD would recreate the serum if I found out the stabilizing component."

"If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?" Was he changing the subject?

"Twenty-four. Why?"

"You look quite young to be a doctor. Anyway, let's go or we'll be late."

Everyone was already in the conference room when we reached.

"Any chance of finding Barton with that bio-tracer thing of yours, doctor?" Fury asked me as we entered.

"No, sir. Whoever Loki's allies are, they haven't been exposed to the Tesserect. At least, not yet. I'll keep looking though." I answered.

"Dr. Banner?" Fury looked a little tense than his usual self.

Dr. Banner looked at his feet before answering. "The gamma radiation is inconsistent. I'm still trying to get a hit."

"We can start with the basics." Said Steve, getting everyone's attention. "He was in Stutgaurd to steal Iridium, which unfortunately, Agent Barton got away with. What does he need the Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent. He is probably building another portal. The one that won't collapse on itself like it did at the research facility." Tony explained.

I saw Thor sitting at a corner, trying to understand what was going on. "What is Loki's plan, Thor? What does he want to do with the Tesserect?" I asked him.

Thor looked at me, glad at finally being addressed to. "He has an army. Not of Asgard or any world known. He wishes to conquer the Earth with its help and rule over it."

"So, that's what he needs the portal for. What else does he need to make the portal, Tony?" I was trying my best not to freak out. A space army?!

"A quantum physicist, a magnetic field generator and a high energy source which we could get at any reactor on the planet." Tony listed.

Fury was already ordering to track down these items.

"Well, I should get back to the lab." Said Dr. Banner.

"Need some help?" offered Tony, walking along with him. In my peripheral vision I saw Tony put something on the computer beside the door, as we walked past.

I looked around to see all the miserable faces around me and Loki's smiling face through the security feed in his glass prison. It looked like he was the only person on this hellicarrier who wanted to be here.


	11. 11 Missed Action

11\. Missed Action

I went to check if I had got a bio-trace hit on my computer and immediately noticed a tiny glitch in the system. SHIELD didn't have system glitches. I remembered Tony messing with the computer.

I quickly went to Dr. Banner's lab and was surprised to find Steve there with them. They were analyzing Loki's scepter.

"What did you put on that computer, Tony?" I said trying to bring out my angry voice. Unfortunately, I only looked as intimidating as an angry squirrel when I did that.

Tony smirked. "I just wanted to find out some dirty secrets SHIELD has been hiding from us. Like, I don't know, what is SHIELD doing with the Tesserect in the first place?" he said, raising an eyebrow at me.

I was at a loss of words. It was obviously not my idea to weaponise the Tesserect. I had always tried to ignore the fact that my research would ultimately be used in Phase 2, but at this moment I could escape that sudden pang of guilt.

"It's going to be used for clean energy." I tried to lie.

"When did SHIELD enter the energy business?" asked Dr. Banner, sarcastically. I could feel Steve's eyes on me.

That was when I lost it. I had not slept in 48 hours, barely eaten anything, and was working like a mule when it was not even my job. "Why are you all looking at me?" I yelled, in a high pitched voice and pointed my finger at Tony, like kids do in front of their moms. "He is the one who hacked into the system of a secret government agency trying to find out secrets that don't even concern him and… and…suddenly I'm the villain…."

I would have gone on if hadn't come forward and slapped me on my face.

"What are you doing?" protested Steve. He looked like he was going to hit Tony.

"Thank you. I needed that." I told Tony, in my normal voice. Steve seemed to calm down a little hearing that.

"No, you need to eat something, sleep and seriously take a shower." Tony said, wrinkling his nose.

"You are right." I was barely able to stand up straight. "But please stop the hack. They'll find out soon enough." I said, walking out.

"Let me walk you to the lounge." Steve offered.

"No, it's all right. I'll manage." I mumbled out.

When I reached the lounge, I knew I couldn't keep myself awake long enough to eat something. I quickly hooked a banana bag to my arm and fell asleep like the dead.

…

I woke up with an i.v. needle pinching me. I quickly removed it. It was my pager that woke me up.

'911. From containment area.'

I was confused. Did Loki need medical assistance?

I knew something was wrong as soon as I got out of the lounge. There was smoke everywhere, bullet holes on the walls. We were clearly attacked. And I slept through all that!

I ran to the containment area. Nick Fury was there along with a medical team, huddled around someone.

"Time of death 13:11." They called it.

I went forward to see who it was and saw Phil Coulson's limp body with a gaping wound in his chest.

Everything else happened in slow motion. I started working on him, performing all the procedures I remembered learning. CPR, lung reflation, electrocution, cardiac massage. I could hear someone in the background telling me to stop, that he was already gone. I didn't listen. I knew he wasn't gone, not yet.

My belief was confirmed when I felt a tiny contraction against my hand which was giving him cardiac massage.

"I got a beat." I called out.

The medical team was already through the door, by the time I called out. They rushed back in and carried Phil to the ICU.

Fury filled me in with what happened. Loki had the plan to unleash the Hulk on the hellicarrier all along, in the hopes of disabling us. Thankfully a jet was used to lure the Hulk away, but his whereabouts were currently unknown. So, Dr. Banner was currently unavailable to track to Tesserect.

Loki had even tricked Thor into falling into his containment unit and dropped it 3000 feet to the ground. Phil tried to stop Loki from escaping nut he drove hid scepter through his chest. Agent Barton was caught and Natasha was currently trying to bring his out of Loki's mind compulsion. Tony and Steve had got injured trying to restart one of the hellicarrier's engines to stop it from falling into the abyss. So, in sort, things were not looking good.

I went to see Steve and Tony. Thanks to the super serum Steve looked fine, but Tony had multiple contusions all over his body. His suit also looked like it took a lot of beating.

"I heard you miraculously saved Coulson's life. Is he going to be all right?" he asked.

"I don't know. I was able to restart his heart but his brain had suffered hypoxia for a long time." I felt really angry. Phil was the only friend I had at SHIELD. "We have to find Loki." I said. My voice was determined.

"How?" Tony asked. Steve didn't say anything.

I got up and started running the bio-trace on my laptop again, manually. This was going to take a while.

Tony and Steve had started discussing the possibilities.

"Loki wants a performance, and audience. Remember his act in Stutgaurd?" asked Steve.

"You're right. Even this, the attack on the hellicarrier, it was completely unnecessary. Ams told me he could easily avoided capture." Now he believed me. I sighed.

It was the same people I was going through again, but I was double checking their details this time.

"Loki is a full tilt diva, right?" continued Tony. "He wants drama, he wants an audience, he wants monuments with his name plastered on the top."

My fingers froze in midair above the keyboard. I quickly moved the axis to Central Park, New York. There I could see on the top of Stark tower, two light green shadows. I could find an ID on one of them- Dr. Stuart Leinsher, quantum physicist.

"Looks like someone crashed your penthouse, Tony."

He came over to look at the screen, followed by Steve.

He looked at the laptop for a full minute before rising. "That son of a b****."


	12. 12 The Battle of New York

12\. The Battle of New York

Tony immediately began to repair his Iron man suit and Steve went to get Natasha. I was asked to secure a jet.

"Have you found him, then?" asked Nick Fury, when I asked him for an override.

"Yeah. He is at Stark Tower." I told him. "Look at the irony."

"We only have one functional jet left aboard. You are sure you'll be able to contain this?"

I looked at him blankly. "Me? Sir, the best I can do is provide them tech support. You should ask them." I saw Steve coming towards us with Natasha and Barton. So, they finally got him out of the compulsion.

"I'm asking you. You're the one that can contain the Tesserect. Look me in the eye and tell me you'll shut it down."

People were normally afraid of Nick Fury, with the eye patch and all, but this was the only time he scared me. "I will." I told him, having no idea, whatsoever, how.

I was sitting beside Steve, while Natasha and Barton were flying the jet.

"Phase 2, did you know about it?" This was the first time he was speaking directly to me since I woke up after the attack. Now I knew the reason. Tony's virus had indeed been able to fish out SHIELD's darkest secrets.

I didn't say anything; I didn't need to. He already knew the answer. All I was able to do was look down in guilt.

He sighed and walked towards the cockpit. He was clearly disappointed. Maybe he was secretly hoping that I'd say no.

When we reached Central Park, a blue beam was already shooting towards the sky from roof of the building. Tony had put on a new suit and was fighting off aliens that were coming out of the portal in the sky.

We were late.

I rushed towards the Stark tower as soon as we landed, while the others tried to stop the alien army. Tony had somehow managed to contact Thor and Banner and they had arrived too.

As I reached the top, I could see a full blown battle from there. People were dying like insects getting smashed below vehicles. Freakin' buildings were falling down. I had to shut down the portal.

I was easier said than done. Cutting off the power didn't help. The Tesserect had already broken off the coulomb barrier and was self-sustaining.

I found the dead body of and elderly male, lying in a corner. A sharp object had been driven through his chest, just like Phil. He was probably Dr. Leinsher and he probably knew how to shut this device down. Well, he wouldn't be able to help now.

To make matters worse, the World Security Council had already ordered a nuclear strike at New York to prevent the aliens from spreading elsewhere.

"Tony, there's a nuke coming in at 2 minutes' mark. Its nuclear." I said as Tony landed on the roof.

"Any closer to shutting down the portal?" he asked.

"No, the barrier is pure energy. Our biggest guns couldn't touch it. And there is an override program in the machine, so it can't be shut down."

"Cut off the power." He said.

"I'm not stupid." I answered, irritated. "It's self-sustaining. Wait…" Then it hit me. "Go, get that missile into the portal, I'll shut it down."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Go." I shouted.

All I had to do was to get the Tesserect's coulomb barrier back up. The only way to do that was to let its energy flow through organic matter. Organic matter had a greater affinity for Tesserect energy than the magnetic field generator. A gap of energy flow for a few seconds to the machine would be enough to build up the coulomb barrier and shut down the portal.

I looked around to find any organic matter on the roof. There was not even a leaf to be found. I cursed Tony's highly efficient cleaning staff. The only options left were Dr. Leinsher's dead body and me.

The body was too far away and too heavy for me to get to get to the machine in time. The nuke was going to explode in seconds and though Tony had set its course into the portal, the explosion could still propel through it, if I didn't close it in time.

I had to make the decision in time. I knew there was no way I could survive if that much amount of Tesserect energy flowed through me. Even my body would be reduced to ashes. I didn't have a death wish but it was my life against millions of others. There was really no math here.

I made my decision as I saw the missile disappear into the portal. I put my bare hand over the Tesserect.

I didn't think I would survive long enough to feel the pain, but I did. I could feel every cell in my body burning, every nerve on fire. The pain so severe that death was a welcome though. I wanted to lose consciousness and fade into the oblivion. That was when I saw the light, but unlike popular belief it wasn't white. It was a blue light, like the Tesserect. So blue that it hurt the eyes. I shut down my eyes tightly.

And I knew no more.


	13. 13 Waking up

13\. Waking up

I woke up with blurry eyes and a groggy mind. It smelled like a hospital room. There were people standing around the bed I was laying on, but I couldn't make out their faces. I struggled to keep my eyes open.

"You idiot." I recognized Tony's voice. "You fool. You…."

"That's enough." Steve said, firmly.

"Yeah, Tony. Go easy on her right now. Don't worry. She'll be appropriately punished for almost dying on my birthday." Said a familiar voice. Pepper. I grimaced internally at the number of shopping trips I'll have to go through for this.

I blinked my eyes several times to clear my vision. What I saw was the most crowded hospital room ever. Tony, Pepper, Steve, Nick Fury, Natasha, Barton, Dr. Banner, everyone had a relieved expression on their face on seeing me conscious. Tony was trying to put on his angry face.

"What happened?" I asked Fury.

"You saved New York, that's what happened." He said, hitting me on the back.

Everyone listened patiently as he told me about the alien army becoming completely disabled when the nuke hit their mothership, through the portal. SHIELD was in damage control mode now. Thousands of lives had been lost, building had been destroyed but it was nothing compared to what could have happened. It was manageable.

"But what happened to the Tesserect? And where is Thor?" I asked.

It was Steve who answered this time. "The Tesserect is as far from our reach as it should be. Thor took it to Asgard, along with Loki."

I looked at Fury. He obviously wasn't happy about it. However, I didn't know if he was moping about losing the Tesserect or Loki."

Finally, Dr. Banner spoke up. "We are all really glad you're all right, Amrita. But how? The amount of energy you absorbed should have been fatal, even if it wasn't Tesserect energy, which is quite toxic even in low doses. According to your research, Dr. Powell had died after being exposed to one-thousandth of the dose,"

He really was a man of science. Always curious and questioning.

Before I could answer and tell them about my super serum discovery, Tony shushed me up.

"I don't think this is a good time to discuss this, Bruce." That was extremely polite for Tony. Maybe he was afraid of the Hulk. Or he genuinely like Dr. Banner. He definitely shared his mad scientist streak.

I looked at Natasha and Barton standing at the corner. They weren't paying attention to what was going on. They were in their own small world. Though Natasha had constantly said that they were just friends, I wondered if they were more.

Finally, my gaze shifted to Steve. He was looking at me intently. When his eyes met mine, he gave me another one of his beautiful smiles. I could continue looking at him, his perfect face with that perfect smile, mesmerized and never get over it.

"You should rest, honey. You haven't recovered yet." Tony said, bringing me out of the trance, gesturing everyone to leave.

I put on a pouty face. I didn't want them to go. But he was right. Though the encounter hadn't left a single injury on my body (surprisingly), my mind or rather my soul was exhausted. I needed to rest.

Tony chuckled at seeing my hilarious pout, gave me a kiss on the forehead and left. Everyone followed him. Steve looked at me before passing through the door. I gave him a smile.

Finally, I was alone in the room. I tried to sleep, but couldn't. It was daytime, and the blinds were not drawn.

I groaned. I did not want to get up. I closed my eyes and wished the blinds would close themselves. Suddenly, the brightness decreased.

That was odd! I opened my eyes and turned around to see who had drawn the blinds.

I gasped as I saw the blue streaks of light vanishing from the sides of the blinds.


	14. 14 Treading Cautiously

14\. Treading Cautiously

74, Utopia Park. Yup, that was the correct address. I knocked on the door. I hadn't expected the founder of SHIELD to have such a humble abode.

A nurse answered the door.

"Hi, I am Amrita Ray, Ms. Carter's new doctor." I told her.

"Yes, of course. She would like to meet you. But, she has a visitor, right now. Would you mind waiting?" she asked gesturing towards the sitting room.

"No. Just tell me when she's free." I told her, sitting down.

I laid back on the sofa and relaxed. This was one of the reasons I had taken up this job. It wasn't stressful. In the past month I was assigned to the trauma department in hospital and there were several incidents when I had lost my calm and the energy I had absorbed from the Tesserect last month had almost resurfaced. Thankfully, no one noticed the blue streaks of light escaping my fingertips.

I hadn't told anyone about it, not my parents, not Tony and especially not SHIELD. I was completely freaked out by it and didn't know what to do. Moreover, I was so busy and exhausted working at the ER that I didn't even have a chance to figure it out.

Therefore, when I was offered the boring, laid back job of the critical care of an ex-SHIELD head, I took it at the first chance.

However, living alone in Washington was not easy even without the hectic ER duty. It was like starting all over. I knew no one here, even at the SHIELD Headquarters. And I was completely out of touch with the people I had known in New York. I left abruptly, as soon as I got discharged from the hospital. Even Tony didn't call these days. He was suffering from PTSD after that incident in New York. At least he had Pepper with him.

I think even I was suffering from PTSD. But unlike Tony, I didn't have anyone here with me. Maybe it was a good thing. God knows what would be the consequences of absorbing that much Tesserect energy. For all I knew I could be ticking time bomb.

Maybe I should tell someone about it.

My musings were interrupted by footsteps coming from the hall. It seemed Ms. Carter's visitor was leaving. Just out of mere curiosity I peeped out to see who it was. To my immense surprise, I saw Steve Rogers putting on his coat in the hallway. I really hadn't expected to see him here.

As if moving subconsciously, I walked to the hall.

"Hi." I said awkwardly.

He looked at me, surprised.

"Amrita! Where have you been?"

"I got transferred. What are you doing here?"

"I…...um…... Peggy, she's an old friend."

"Oh!" was all I could say. I understood what he meant by 'friend' of course. The 90-year-old lady I will be treating was Captain America's old flame.

We were interrupted by the nurse. "Ms. Carter is ready to see you, doctor."

"Will I find you at the hospital?" Steve asked me.

"In the clinic." I corrected him.

"I'll find you there tomorrow, then." He said, walking out of the door.

I stood there in the hallway, for about one minute, contemplating. He had a new haircut. It looked nice.

I gave myself a kick (internally, of course). Why was I thinking about his hair, standing there in the hallway?

I collected myself and went to Ms. Carters room.

She turned out to be a nice old lady, in the best condition a 90-year-old could be expected to be in.

"Don't you have better patients than me, dear? Such a young, ambitious doctor. How did you get stuck with me?" She had a thick British accent.

"I didn't get stuck, Ms. Carter. I volunteered.

"That's odd." She said, closing her eyes.

After 5 minutes, I was sure she was asleep. I debated whether to wake her up or not. I had to complete the physical examination.

Suddenly, her eyes fluttered open. "What's your name, dear?" she asked, casually.

"Amrita." I repeated, continuing the exam.

She simply nodded and it kind of creeped me out. Her nod was quite meaningful, as if she had known my entire life story just by my name.

…

I reached the clinic the next morning earlier than I was supposed to, and happier than I usually was. I knew the reason for this, but refused to accept it.

The good mood, however, didn't last long.

I had gone to submit a patient's file at the nurse's station when I noticed the familiar face of Tony Stark on the television screen. There had been a terrorist attack in Miami and someone from Tony's personal staff had been seriously injured. The media was badgering him for a statement, and he gave the most idiotic one possible.

'If you're not a coward, Mandarin, or whatever you call yourself, meet me man-to-man. Address is 12, Malibu Point. I'll leave the door open.'

I called him as soon as I recollected myself from his outrageously dangerous statement. The feed was live. I clearly heard hid ringtone from the TV, saw him take the phone out of his pocket and look at it. And I also saw him reject the call and put the phone back inside.


	15. 15 The Price for Peace

15 The Price for Peace

I was still in shock at Tony's reaction to my call. Why had he done that? It was true we hadn't talked in a while, but he never used to reject my calls.

I was looking blankly at the television screen, even though the news had changed, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see Steve looking at me with a worried face.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing." I told him. He wasn't convinced but dropped it.

"It's almost lunch time. Do you have any plans?" he asked. I shook my head.

"Would you…. I mean would you like to…" seeing him struggling to do something as simple as asking me out for lunch, made me smile.

"Yeah, sure." I interrupted him. "I've a couple of patients though."

"I'll wait." He said, walking towards the patient waiting area.

Five minutes and one patient later, I realized what had happened. Did he just ask me out on a date? Or was it just a friendly invitation? Damn, why didn't I let him finish?

…

We were sitting at a café near the Smithsonian having small talk. I was trying to speculate if it was a date or not when he said, "I wanted to talk to you about something." He looked serious.

"Yes?" I asked, swallowing a big bite of cheeseburger I had in my mouth.

"I…. I'm not sure how to ask you." He hesitated. "What do you think about SHIELD?"

I wasn't expecting this question. "I don't know what you mean."

"Do you ever feel that it is not what it claims to be?" Uh oh!

"What happened?" I asked him. I knew SHIELD was not necessarily the white knight of America. It had got some red in its ledger. But it was necessary for the maintain stability and balance in the world. I did not expect Steve to understand that easily.

"A lot of small things. The lies, the 'compartmentalization' as Fury calls it. But mostly what concerns me is Project Insight. You've heard about it?"

"No." I told him, truthfully. "What is it? No, wait. Don't tell me. I don't think I'm supposed to know." I stopped him before he could answer me. "Listen, I know SHIELD is not a perfect organization, but it's a necessary one. There are many things you don't even know about SHIELD, which I'm sure you wouldn't like, but their final result is maintaining stability in the world. There is a price to be paid for peace."

"That's funny. Nick Fury said the exact same line to me yesterday." He did not look amused.

I sighed. If it was a date it was ruined.

….

I lied down in bed that night, flipping through SHIELD's emergency channels in the transcom, thinking about lunch. We didn't talk much about his concerns about SHIELD. In fact, we didn't talk much about anything after that. He was obviously not satisfied with my explanation. I wondered if he would quit.

Then I heard a familiar name on the transcom, "Fury has been shot, I repeat, The Director is shot. Attacker unconfirmed. Captain Rogers in pursuit."

I quickly got up and rushed to the hospital. The informant, whom I recognized to be Agent 13, sounded frantic. This was clearly serious. As soon as I reached the hospital, Maria Hill cornered me. She was Fury's second in command.

"I know you'd be worried right now, but I need you to keep your head. You're the only doctor here that Director Fury trusts completely. I want you to go inside the operation theatre and inject him with this." She said handing me phial. "It's Tetradoxlin B. Do it only when he is stable."

"But why?" I began to ask.

"There is no time for questions." She said and walked away, acting like just had a sad conversation, consoling each other.

I knew what Tetradoxlin B did. I slowed down the heart to 5 beats per minute, making the person look dead to unaware people. But why would they want Nick Fury to appear dead?

I entered the operation theatre. They were performing an open heart surgery on him. He looked in a pretty bad shape. But the damage was repairable. He had got extremely lucky. I couldn't help but wonder if it was luck or careful planning.

Five hours later, he looked almost stable. This was my window. I knew I had to do it during the surgery. I took a deep breath and very carefully, with extreme levels of stealth, managed to inject the drug. As expected, his ECG began to flatten and the heart rate reduced. The surgeons started the resuscitatory measures. I knew it would have no effect.

I was about to scrub out, when I randomly looked up to the gallery. Steve was standing there, looking at me with narrowed eyes. He gestured me to meet him outside.

I swallowed hard. I was 86.3% sure he had seen me. I racked up my brain for an excuse, but found nothing.

I was already in the corridor and saw him walking towards me. Thankfully, Agent 13 called him at that moment, "Captain they need you at the HQ."

"Just a moment." He said, grabbing my hand, pulling me into a corner. Wow. That was bold for him, even in this situation.

"Please tell me I didn't just see what I just saw."

"You didn't." I assured him. I couldn't offer him any more of an explanation.

Agent 13 called out again, "Captain, they need you, now."

"Coming." He answered. "We have to talk." He told me before walking away.

I looked at my hand after he left. It was red, of course. His hold was strong. But, on it was lying a SHIELD high security flash drive.


	16. 16 Hunted

16\. Hunted

I went to my apartment confused. Why had Hill wanted to Fury to appear dead? I was really worried about him. Tetradoxlin B after the injuries he suffered? It could be disastrous. Of course Hill had taken away his 'body' away, so there was no way for me to make sure if he was okay.

And why had Steve given me the pen drive? What was I supposed to do with it? I didn't plug it in. Somehow, I thought he wouldn't want the SHIELD homing server to find out the drive's location.

I was speculating what to do, when I heard a knock on my window. I turned and behold, Steve Rogers was standing in my balcony. I didn't even bother to think how he got there.

I opened the window. "I've a door, you know."

"I don't think a fugitive from SHIELD could afford to use that." He said. "You have the drive?"

Why was he a fugitive? "Yes." I said, handing the drive to him. "Where did you get it?"

"Fury gave it to me. Speaking of Fury, you've got some serious explaining to do."

"He's not dead, all right? Maria gave me a drug to inject him with. It slowed down his heart to make him look dead. That's all I know." I explained.

He looked relieved. Did he seriously think that I killed Fury?

It was my turn to ask question. "How did you manage to become fugitive from SHIELD?"

"Because of this." He said, holding out the flash drive. "Alexander Pierce is SHIELD's new director. And he desperately wanted to get his hands on this. Fury told me not to trust anyone with this. We have to find out what is in it."

"It's easier said than done. This device has level 5 homing program. SHIELD would know our location as soon as we plug it in. Besides there would be unlimited layers on security in there and I'm not that good in hacking. There's no way we can pull this off alone. We have to get this to Tony. He'll know what to do."

His face suddenly turned grim, as soon as I said Tony's name. "Have you seen the news?" he asked.

"No. What's wrong?"

He didn't answer. He was scaring me now. I quickly switched on the television.

'Billionaire Tony Stark killed by the Mandarin. Terrorist attack at Stark Mansion.' I read the headlines. They were showing pictures of Tony's house blown to pieces. I couldn't hear what the anchor was saying. It felt like my ears had gone numb.

"This is not possible. Tony can't die like this." I said, looking at Steve. I was not in denial. I knew there was no way Tony would die like this, with the number of Iron man suits at his mansion.

Steve didn't reply. He just ran towards me and pinned me to the ground. I looked around to see bullets shattering my windows. What was happening?

Steve grabbed me and crawled towards the balcony. It wasn't difficult for him, considering how tiny I was. "What are you doing?" I shouted at him over the noise of the bullets.

"Just trust me. And grab hold." He said, jumping out.

We were already midair when I threw my arms around his neck. Even then, all I could think about was how perfect his deltoid was, instead of the impending death.

However, death didn't come as I expected it to. Steve broke our fall by grabbing the rails of a balcony. We landed on the ground with a soft thud, as he let go.

"Are you all right?" he asked, his lips almost touching my ear. I realized I hadn't let go of him yet. I quickly removed my hands from around his neck and stood up.

"I'm fine." I said. "Who were they?"

"SHIELD apparently." He said, showing me one of the bullets in his hand. Yep, that was the SHIELD hallmark.

"We can't stay here." He motioned me to follow him.

He led me to a car, which if I remembered correctly was not his. I got in without any questions.

It was him who spoke first, when we were a few miles away from my apartment. "It must be difficult for you, with Stark being…attacked." He didn't use the word 'killed'. Maybe even he didn't believe that Tony was dead. "But he can't help us now. We have to get this done on our own."

He was right. I took a deep breath trying to get Tony out of my mind for now. "Let's go to an Apple store. The firewall might keep the homing signals at bay for some time. Still, we wouldn't have more than 10 minutes."

He steered the car towards the Technicia block.

"Can I ask you something?" I said.

"Sure."

"Why did you give the flash drive to me? For all you knew I had just murdered Fury."

"I trust you more than that." He simply stated.

To be honest, I was touched. He trusted me more than he trusted his own mind.

"So, where did you steal this car?" I asked him, trying to lighten the mood.

He became defensive. "I borrowed it."

"Oh, for a moment I actually thought you compromised for the greater good." I was having fun, chiding him like that.

"I know I can be very irritating, being stubborn like that…"

"No." I interrupted him. "It's not irritating. It's actually one of the things I admire about you."

He looked at me with a surprised expression. He obviously hadn't expected that compliment.

"Thanks." He said. Was he blushing?

…

I was fidgeting with the flash drive as we entered the Apple Store. Steve noticed my nervousness and squeezed my hand. It provided little comfort.

All this month I had been trying to suppress the Tesserect energy inside me, but now I wished I could use it to decode this flash drive. Though, I suppose I couldn't be used for that.

I had 'borrowed' a couple of nerdy caps and glasses, hoping it might make the STRIKE team of SHIELD work a little harder to find us. Taking a deep breath, I plugged in the flash drive. My mind and fingers automatically started working in turbo mode. I knew in two minutes that the drive would be impossible for me to hack.

"Getting somewhere?" Steve asked me. God, his nerdy look was distracting me.

"No. I can't hack it." I said, still trying to find any minor detail I could get my hands on. "Let's go." I plugged out the drive.

I had expected Steve to give me a disappointed look but he didn't. He simply nodded and started walking.

I realized we were a little late, when I saw a SHIELD Agent in the corridor. They were already sweeping the building for us.

Steve had got into the elevator before I could stop him. I followed him inside. So, did the SHIELD Agent. The elevator was crowded but it wouldn't take long for him to recognize us. I had to think fast. What makes me look away from people in public?

Oh!

I turned towards Steve, stood on my toes and put my lips on his. At first, he was slightly taken aback, but didn't recoil. Instead he put his hand on my waist to support me. His lips started moving against mine and it felt good enough to get me carried away. At this point I had forgotten about everything else.

I was brought back to my senses by the ring of the elevator. The SHIELD Agent got out. Miraculously, he had not seen us. I broke free from Steve. He looked at me, confused. I grabbed his hand, leading him outside.

I must have been blushing when I explained him in a low voice, "Agent Morrison was on the lift. They were searching for us. I thought it might make him look away."

"Oh." Was all he said.


	17. 17 HYDRA

17\. HYDRA

There was an awkward silence between us as we drove away. I tried to break the ice.

"I found a few things in the flash drive. It was written at an old SHIELD base near the HQ and it has been used for something called 'Project Insight'." I remembered Steve had used the name when we last met.

This definitely caught Steve's attention.

"Maybe we can find something at the SHIELD base." I noticed the awkwardness in his voice.

I was uncertain what to do next, so I decided to proceed honestly. I had to tell him how I felt about him.

"Steve." I said, contemplating what to say.

"Hmm?" he answered, looking straight at the road.

"Liked the kiss?" I regretted it as soon as I said it.

His eyes widened at hearing the question. He looked more amused than shocked. "Umm… yes? I mean…." He answered, incoherently.

"Me too." I said, cutting him off.

Somehow the atmosphere felt lighter. The awkwardness was gone.

"You're not very good at it, though." He said after a minute.

Ouch!

"Well, that's not my fault. I never had any practice." I defended myself.

"Wow. Really? Not even once?" I looked like he was enjoying teasing me now.

I tried to ignore him. "So, what's Project Insight?"

"I thought you didn't want to know."

"It wouldn't make any difference now." I would already be on SHIELD's wanted list by now.

"SHIELD is launching armed hellicarriers with ability to shoot targets by satellite location technology. I really don't understand what is insightful about it." He told me.

"The targeting software would not be small enough to be present in this device. What other super-secret program is supposed to be used on Project Insight?"

Steve looked at me grimly. He knew if the program had something to do with Project Insight, millions of lives hung in the balance.

…

The SHIELD base looked ancient. No living soul was seen. I was considering a faked location, when Steve discovered a secret door. We went through it to a room which contained a retro tech supercomputer. It really didn't look like the source of the program, but I had learnt not to judge a book by its cover.

Steve took the flash drive and put it in the socket. The computer booted up.

"Ah! Captain Rogers. It's nice to see you again. Do you remember me?" a voice came from the computer. An AI in this tech. Impossible.

I looked at Steve, questioningly. He seemed to recognize the voice. "Armin Zola. He used to work for HYDRA, back in the forties."

"You should get your facts right, Captain. I still work for HYDRA." Said the voice.

"HYDRA doesn't exist anymore. The Red Skull is dead."

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place. HYDRA has been growing inside SHIELD for decades now."

It looked like Steve's mistrust of SHIELD wasn't baseless. "That's impossible. SHIELD would have stopped you." I said.

"Only if they knew, dear. Howard Stark was the only one who ever came close to knowing our secret. But he was disposed off, easily."

What? Tony's families' car crash wasn't an accident?

"And now with the launch of Project Insight, all of HYDRA's enemies will be disposed. All 20 million of them." The voice continued.

So, that's was the content of the flash drive. A program to list out HYDRA's enemies and make them targets of the hellicarriers. I had a feeling we would not be getting out of here alive. There was no reason it would be telling us all this otherwise.

"What that noise?" Steve said. A millisecond later something hit the building and an explosion occurred. We were able to see it through a blue force field around us. Nothing was able to penetrate it, the fire, the debris or the smoke.

A minute later, we were standing in a clear zone, surrounded by a completely demolished building. I removed the force field Steve was looking at me disbelief.

"What just happened?" he asked.

"We have to get out of here." I ignored his question. He would figure it out himself soon enough.

Our car had also been blown to pieced. We had just reached the road when a van pulled up beside us.

"Bucky?" Steve said, as a man got out of the driver's seat.

"Who the hell is Bucky?" he replied.

Then he shot a bazooka at us.


	18. 18 An Old Friend

18\. An Old Friend

I blocked the bazooka with the force field, which I'd seemed to master in the first attempt.

How did Steve know this guy? The dude had a metal arm, for god's sake. Steve was still in shock, either due to this guy or my recently revealed superpowers. I knew he had to pull himself together soon, as I wouldn't be able to fend off our attacker long. It didn't matter how awesome my powers were, I had spent two entire months trying to suppress them.

'Bucky' or whoever he was, started working towards us. I tried to propel the force field towards him, which threw him back. Just then, a car pulled up beside us.

"Get in!" Maria Hill, shouted, pulling down the window.

I pulled Steve inside, who was still looking in the direction the guy had fallen.

"How are you two even alive? Asked Hill, as we drove away.

That could be explained later. "Where are we going?"

"Safe house." She answered.

I turned towards Steve. He looked distracted. "What's wrong?" I asked him.

"I knew him. But that's impossible. He can't be alive." He looked confused.

"Maybe he was just someone who looked like the person you knew." I offered.

He shook his head. Then he remembered. "Was that Tesserect energy?" he asked in a low voice.

I nodded. I hadn't expected the vertigo that came with the head movement. I lied back on the seat.

"You okay?" Steve asked.

"Yeah. I'm just…. I'm not feeling well."

"We are almost there." Maria said from the driver's seat.

Steve supported me as we walked inside a normal sub-urban house. Nick Fury was lying on the couch in the living room. It was such a relief to see him alive. He was a shadow of his former self, frail and weak. I guess open heart surgery does that to people.

There was someone sitting on the arm chair opposite him. I couldn't see who it was. I tried to walk around the chair to see who it was, but everything became blurry as I took the first step. I fell down at the second one.

…

I woke up with something pricking my arm. I flinched due to the pain.

"Stop it. You're hurting her." I heard indistinctly.

"Her blood glucose is less than 50. Do you think she'll thank me for sparing her some pain when she's a vegetable?" I heard Tony's voice, distinctly. He was trying to insert an i.v. needle into my arm, failing miserably.

"Let me do it." I said weakly.

Tony dropped the apparatus on the bed and left the room. "What's up with him?" Steve asked, helping me sit up.

I put in the i.v. in the first try. "I guess I've hurt him. Are you all right?" I asked, seeing his distraught face.

He took a deep breath. "The man who attacked us, he is called the Winter Soldier. He was the one who attacked Fury. He is credited for dozens of assassinations over the past 50 years. And I've a good reason to believe that his name is James Buchanan Barnes."

"He was your friend?" I guessed.

"The best one. I think he has been brainwashed. He'd never do anything like this otherwise."

"We'll have to stop the Insight launch." I reminded him. He couldn't let his friendship get in the way.

He nodded. "Stark and me as leaving as soon as he fixes his suit."

"I'm coming too." I said, trying to get up. The vertigo hit again and I fell back.

"I don't see how you can." Steve said.

There was no point in arguing. "You know it's very easy to sacrifice oneself to do the right thing. Its not easy to do that to our loved ones." I told him.

He seemed to understand what I was saying. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Can you help me get up?"

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I need to talk to Tony."

He seemed to understand that too. He lifted me up and carried me to the room where Tony was working. Sadly, I was too nauseated to enjoy the ride. He left after putting me on the couch.

"Hi." I said.

"Hi." He replied, in a flat tone, suggesting he was mad.

"What's your problem? I almost died today." I tried emotional blackmail.

"You seem to have made a hobby of it."

I ignored that. "On the news, they announced that you were dead. But I knew you weren't."

"Good for you."

"Oh my god. Why are you doing this? I'm sorry, all right? I shouldn't have left like that. I know that now. But I was really freaked out at that time. I had absorbed all that Tesserect energy and somehow it became a superpower. Not everyone handles superpowers as well as you. Look what it did to me today. And I know I should've told you about this earlier, but I didn't. I'm sorry for that. Please don't do this." My voice broke.

Tony certainly wasn't expecting this. "Superpower?" he asked, finally in his normal tone.

I was surprised Steve hadn't told him. I explained everything to him, as much I understood myself. He seemed pretty intrigued by it. He was back to his normal self, apparently having forgiven me.

After that it was my turn to ask questions. "So, you defeated the Mandarin?"

"Oh, it's a long story. I'll tell you later." He said as Maria Hill entered.

"Director Fury wants to see you." She said.


	19. 19 The Downfall

19\. The Downfall

"Pierce is the only one who could've ordered that missile strike. If he is HYDRA, all of SHIELD is working under him." Steve said as we entered.

"Then you'll have to tell him the truth about HYDRA. They'll believe you, I'm sure." I said. "And something has to be done about SHIELD too.

"What do you mean?" Fury asked.

"Well, HYDRA has its roots inside it. Some kind of deworming is clearly needed."

"I don't think any kind of deworming would do the job. SHIELD has to go." Said Steve firmly, never afraid to take extreme actions.

"Are you nuts? Would you kill a man if he's got worms? We just have to clean it up." Fury was not that radicle.

"You've had your chance to clean it up all these years when you were the director. Cap is right. We need to take down SHIELD." For once, Tony agreed with him.

I didn't say anything. I didn't have to. Fury was clearly outnumbered.

"So, how do you plan to do it?" Hill inquired.

Tony had a plan. "First we'll have to take down the hellicarriers. Blow up anything we can get our hands on, inside them. Transmitters, Control Panels, anything. Ms. Hill can sneak into the headquarters amidst the chaos and release all of SHIELD's files online. That ought to shut it down. What's a secret organization without secrets? It will also leak HYDRA's secrets."

"Sounds like a plan." Steve approved.

Fury just shook his head in resignation. Hill, it appeared, wasn't as interested in salvaging SHIELD as Fury was. "Insight will be launched in an hour. We'll have to leave now." She said. "Is your suit ready?"

"As ready as it'll ever be." Tony answered.

….

I was sitting in a car along with Nick Fury parked ashore the bay, near the headquarters. Against my medical advice, he insisted on coming here.

"What's with the low sugar levels? I've never seen you to succumb this much to stress." He commented.

"It's not stress." I told him. "It's kind of …. complicated.

"Complicated, as in related to that Tesserect superpower?" he said, surprising me. "Oh yes, I've got eyes and ears everywhere. It's a shame you can't use it to help them in this mission."

"I can barely stand up. What do you want me to do?"

"Your best." He answered, simply.

Soon enough, the action began. A large number of SHIELD Agents had rallied to our cause. Looked like Steve's speech worked. Tony trying to get inside a hellicarrier which was already midair. I counted a total of three gunned hellicarriers. One for Tony, one for Steve, and… I doubted any of them could reach the third one in time.

I got out of the car. I can control it, I told myself, the power as well as its effects. I closed my eyes and visualized the hellicarrier getting torn down, piece by piece. I could feel the telekinesis working. And I could also feel the dizziness engulfing my brain.

"No, not again." I said. You can control it, came a voice from inside my head. I felt my feet leave the ground. The next thing I knew was me floating midair, with the hellicarrier in front of me getting dismantled by blue light beams.

The other two were also going down. One of them directly towards the SHIELD headquarters. I think Tony took 'taking down SHIELD' a bit too literally. Thankfully, the building had been evacuated during all this commotion. Tony was saving the people from the falling debris.

I couldn't see Steve anywhere. I looked around, searching for him. I found him at the other side of the bay. Someone was taking him out of the water. I recognized that someone to be the Winter Soldier.

I quickly 'flew' to him. The Winter Soldier or Bucky, whoever he was, had disappeared when I reached there.

"Steve." I called out. He didn't respond. I noticed two bullet wound on his abdomen and one on his arm. He was barely breathing.

I started giving him CPR. After about a minute, he coughed.

"You just can't keep your mouth off me, can you?" he joked, grinning.


	20. 20 Aftermath

7\. Aftermath

"Looks like he turned from Capsicle to Capsalad." Said Tony, as we were sitting in Steve's hospital room. He was unconscious after the surgery.

"That doesn't even make any sense." I told him, suppressing a smile. It was a little funny.

He let that go. "So, it looks like you're out of job."

"Looks like I am." I had to get another one soon for my visa renewal. "Tony, did anybody see me there?"

"You mean when you showed off your badass powers? No, I don't think anyone did. You were too far away from the action. Everyone thinks it was a new Iron man trick. We could hold a press conference, though."

"No, definitely not. I don't want to broadcast. The less people know, the better."

"You're strange." He didn't argue, though. "I should get going. Hill might need my help fending off those leeches at the Capitol Hill."

"I thought he'd never leave." Came from voice from beside me, after he left.

"You were awake!" I accused Steve.

"What happened?" he asked me. I sensed a little bit of déjà vu.

"Project Insight failed. Pierce is buried beneath the rubble of the headquarters. SHIELD is exposed to the public and so is HYDRA. Everything went according to the plan, except you getting shot and almost dying."

"Was he caught? Bucky?" I had a feeling that he was the one who landed Steve in this condition.

"No. He got you out of the water, though." I told him, reluctantly. "Are you sure it was him? I pulled out his file. It said he died in 1945 from falling from 5000 ft."

"His unit was captured by HYDRA in 1940. Zola experimented on him, trying to replicate the super serum. That must've kept him alive." So, he'd actually put some thought into it.

"Did he recognize you?"

"I think so. He must've. There's no other reason he'd get me out of the bay." He speculated. "So, it seems you finally got a handle on your powers."

"Yes. And look what I used them to find." I said, holding up his shield. "It was at the bottom of the bay."

"Thanks. I should be more careful with this, I guess."

"You should, because SHIELD wouldn't be able to provide you another one, anymore." Said Nick Fury, entering the room. He was wearing black sunglasses indoors. But that wasn't what I found odd. He looked really strange to me without his eyepatch.

"What's with the new look?" I couldn't help, but ask.

"I'm supposed to be dead. Can't be seen wearing my signature style, can I?

"Why are you still pretending to be dead? HYDRA is no longer a threat, is it?" I asked.

"Have you even looked at the HYDRA files we leaked. It was more than just a parasite inside SHIELD. Most of its major bases are in Europe. That's what I've come to talk about. I'm leaving for Berlin tonight. I'll try to fish out as many HYDRA holdouts as I can. What do you think about getting back to your old job of busting out the HYDRA bases I find, Captain?"

"Nothing would suit me better." Steve answered, smiling.

"What about you, Ray?"

"Me?" I asked, surprised.

"Why not? You've got superpowers now. You're basically an Avenger."

"No, I'm definitely not an Avenger. It's not as simple as you think. These powers are complicated. I need to learn to control them, which is going to take a long time."

"That's a shame." He said. "You'd have liked the job."

"Speaking of jobs, I'm going to need a new one now. Care to give me a recommendation?"

"Uh uh? What should I write? 'Attracts trouble like a magnet' or 'Might get your hospital blown up in a matter of months'?" he teased.

I made a face. I didn't have a comeback. I suppose it was true, wasn't it? Trouble never seemed to leave me alone.


	21. 21 Proposal

It had been six months since we took down HYDRA. Steve and I were together now, more or less. We hadn't informed anyone about our relationship. Sneaking around was kind of fun.

I had got a new job in New York City hospital which kept me even more busy than the job at SHIELD. He was travelling most of the time, either in fruitless attempts to find his brainwashed friend Bucky or to eliminate the HYDRA bases Nick Fury had managed to find out. He only managed to visit me twice a month and today I was expecting such visit.

It was 2 in the morning and I was sitting on the living room couch, drinking my 6th cup of coffee. He was late. I was just about to give up and go to bed when I heard a knock. I ran to the door and opened it to find the person I had desperately wanted to see.

"Hi." He said, smiling brightly.

I pulled him inside and gave him a passionate kiss. "Hi." I breathed against his lips.

We shared a really nice, authentic relationship. There was just the right amount of respect, love and attraction. We had connected well emotionally and shared the most personal things with each other. The only front where we hadn't made any progress was the physical. We hadn't even reached the second base. I knew him well enough to not expect him to make the first move. So, tonight, I had decided, I would make the first move.

I was scared when I had thought about it, but now with his lips against mine and my hands in his, it did not appear that difficult.

I thought about getting rid of his shirt. Yup, it would be nice to feel those amazing abs. But both my hands were firmly grasped by his. Well, I had other methods. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate my Tesserect energy to unhook the buttons of his shirt. It turned out to be very difficult, especially with his tongue inside my mouth. Somehow I managed to let loose three of his buttons. When he realized it, he broke the kiss and looked at me questioningly. I let go of his hands and ripped open his shirt, my mouth finding his again.

My hands were roaming free on his bare chest, memorizing every contour, every ridge. He obviously hadn't expected this.

"Amrita." He said against my mouth, probably on the intention of trying to stop me, but it came out as a moan. He was certainly enjoying himself.

To take things further, I took his hand and put it on my chest . He didn't remove it; neither did he do anything else. His fingers lingered there. I could feel their small twitches. He really wanted to press it. Why wasn't he?

My hand moved down his bare navel, enjoying every millimeter. I reached his waistline and allowed my fingers to lightly touch the bulge in front of his jeans. At that moment he lost control and gave me the squeeze I was waiting for. I moaned into his mouth.

As if unable to take it anymore, he entwined both my hands with his, maintaining a safe distance from his torso to mine. I couldn't do anything to get out of his grip, so I just stood there, breathing hard. It looked like even he couldn't catch his breath.

"You're driving me crazy." He accused me, in between the rapid, shallow breaths.

"That was the plan." I told him.

There was another trick I had up my sleeve, using my superpower, which id just recently learned to control, I evaporated the top of my night suit. I was wearing a lacy black bra underneath it.

It didn't have the effect I was hoping for. Steve's eyes flickered only for a second before returning to my face.

"Marry me." He whispered.

My pager went off that exact second.

"I have to go." I said, storming off to my bedroom to get dressed, not even confirming if I had to or not.

I went out of the apartment without another glance at Steve. How could he say that? He knew very well how I felt about marriage. I had told him everything. Living all those years with the slowly dying marriage of my parents had made me hate even the idea of it.

My parents had been very much in love when they got married. I had seen the videos of the day of their marriage. They actually looked like they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with each other. But in person, I had never seen then that way. They always looked for excuses to get away from each other. Both of them had extramarital affairs. Towards the end, they could even stand the sight of each other. They had finally got divorced last year. I was very happy about it. They were nice people when they were away from each other.

I had decided quite young that I'd never get married. I would rather die alone than have that kind of relationship with someone.

It was already morning when I got back from the hospital. I had convinced myself to forgive Steve about what had happened. Maybe he just said it in the heat of the moment. Though, that is clearly not something to say in the heat of the moment.

He was cooking when I entered the apartment. Mac and cheese, I recognized the aroma. He was wearing the sweatshirt I had borrowed from him last month. I had taken it because I liked to smell it when he was not with me. It was good he was wearing it; his smell had almost faded off.

"Hungry?" He asked as he saw me.

"Yeah. But I'll have to shower first."

He had already set the table when I returned. I sat down and took a bite of his cooking.

"It's really good." I said, my hand automatically reaching for the pepper.

"You're not supposed to put spices in it." His voice was criticizing.

"Honey, I'm Indian. I can't eat something you're not supposed to put spices on." I had already added ample amount of black pepper to my plate.

He sighed. "About last night..." He began.

"I'm trying to forget about it." I warned him. I really didn't want to talk about it, now that things were back to normal.

"Not all marriages are doomed to fail, you know."

He really wanted to go there. "Like?" I prompted him, prepping myself to tear down any example he came up with.

"Like us." He cheated.

"Do you even know the divorce rates in America?" He didn't. Of course, he didn't.

"It doesn't matter. We'll beat any odds. We always do. How many people have as much Tesserect exposure as us and lived to talk about it?"

"That's an entirely different thing. And why do you even want to get married? Is there anything we can't do now that we can do after we are married?"

"Yes, there is. But that's not the point now. And if you think everything would be the same, why are you so afraid? Are you afraid of commitment?"

"You know I'm not. And you know very well why I'm afraid. Is there any reason to repeat all this? I love you. Isn't it good enough?"

"It is." He said, giving me a beautiful smile.

I finally thought it was over, when he took out a ring from his pocket,

"Don't worry. I'm not doing it again." He said, looking at the mortified look on my face. "This was my mother's. I had hoped to give it you at the right time. But since I already blew my chance and since you don't want to get married, I think you should have it. Not as an engagement ring of course, but more like the-ball-is-in-your-court kind of ring. I would badger you with proposals. We'll get married only if you ever want to."

I looked at the ring. It was heart shaped and really beautiful.

"Would I have to wear it?" I asked, testing the waters.

"It is completely your choice. Though, I assume you wouldn't want to"

"So you want me to just keep it. Why?"

"To remind you that my heart belongs to you."

Sounds cheesy, but the way he said it, it was the most romantic thing I've ever heard. I took the ring and put it on, carefully avoiding the ring finger. I would take it later.

Then, I remembered something.

"We won't be having sex without getting married, would we?" I asked him.

He smiled, a completely different smile from the one before. It was more of a smirk.

"I'm old fashioned, aren't I?"

I sighed and took another bite of my spicy mac and cheese.


	22. 22 The Wedding

"I'm scared." I said. I truly was. My heart was racing like a hummingbirds.

"Wanna bail?" came Tony's reply. I looked at him. He looked serious.

That was when the music started to play. I took a deep breath and put a firm foot forward. Turned out my hands weren't as firm. They were shaking.

"You okay?" he was concerned this time.

"I'm fine." I managed to squeak.

I tried to move my feet, but they wouldn't move. Tony had to drag me a few steps till the corner. A few of the guests in the last seats began whispering.

And then I saw him. I hadn't seen him in two days. Stupid wedding customs. But now when I saw him, it felt like I was seeing him for the first time. He was wearing a tuxedo. His eyes, perfect blue with a little bit of green, staring intently at me. All I wanted to do at that moment was to go to him. So, I started walking, maybe a little too fast for the music. Tony constantly had to slow me down.

Finally, I reached him. Tony put my hand in his and walked back. I was there with him. I barely noticed when the pastor began speaking. We had decided not to speak vows. We didn't need to tell the world how much we loved each other. We only needed to tell each other.

I couldn't help but notice, how perfect his lips were, when they moved to say 'I do '.

His expressions changed. He was looking at me expectantly. Perhaps it was my turn.

"I do" I murmured, my eyes never leaving his.

"... Pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride now." I heard indistinctly.

He gently placed his hand on my cheek cupping it lightly. No sooner his lips touched me and molded into mine. It was such a light touch. It wasn't enough. I wanted more of him. After what seemed like two seconds he pulled away. I was left longing.

It was already evening. I was dancing with my husband on the tune of 'A thousand years'. His hands were on my waist and mine on his shoulder. I noticed the difference in the way he touched me now. Earlier it was hesitant, controlled. Now it was so easy, so casual, so enthralling.

"What are you thinking, Mrs. Rogers?" he whispered into my ear. I blushed at the name.

"This is going to take some getting used to." I told him, smiling, as the song ended.

Tony walked up to us. "May I cut in?" he asked, already reaching for my hand. Steve gracefully walked away.

Leona Lewis' 'I got you' began playing. No other song could suit us better.

"What's wrong?" I asked, nothing the troubled look on his face.

"Nothing." He said.

I raised an eyebrow. Nobody could read Tony better than I did. Over the years I had learned to recognize all the subtle signs on his face.

"It's just... " he hesitated. " You were so scared while walking in. And then when you saw him you forgot everything else. I want that. I want someone to look at me the way you look at Steve."

I felt really bad for him. He hadn't been exactly well after his recent break up with Pepper. It had been messy. I knew he loved her.

"I'm sure you'll find someone." I told him.

"Really? When? I'm 46." He argued.

"Well, Steve is a hundred and two." I countered.

He half-smiled. "That is a good point."

Soon I heard the commotion. "Is there a doctor here?" I heard someone shout.

We walked towards the corner where the crowd had gathered.

It was Mr. Simons, Managing director of Stark Industries. He was choking, with barely any noise escaping his throat. I noticed his fingertips turning blue.

"Get me a knife, some vodka and a straw." I told Tony. He went quickly without any questions.

"He is allergic to peanuts. I forgot to bring his medication." Mrs. Simons sobbed.

"Everyone clear out." I ordered. The bride was gone now. The doctor was here. "Someone call 911."

I quickly started working on him, trying everything I could think of- back blows, salbutamol, abdominal thrusts. Finally when his lips started turning blue, I looked at Tony. He had already put the knife in the vodka, sterilizing it. Steve was there beside him, looking at me apologetically. I gave him a half smile. It wasn't his fault someone choked at our wedding.

I turned towards my patient. I wasn't nervous. I had performed this procedure at least a dozen times. I easily found the cricothyroid cartilage, made the cut and carefully inserted the straw into his trachea.

Almost immediately his condition began to improve. The ambulance also arrived at the moment. The paramedics took over and I looked down at my wedding gown. It was splattered with blood.

Steve put his arm around me. "You saved his life." He said in admiration.

"I'll have to go to the hospital with them. You should stay here."

He opened his mouth to protest but I stopped him. "It's our wedding. One of us has to stay."

He nodded. I kissed him on his cheek and whispered in his ear, "I'll see you tonight."

He was blushing when I walked away.

I was standing at the door of our room. I couldn't believe I was scared again.

It was Steve inside. The person whom I loved most in this world. I brought myself to open the door. He was standing at the window looking outside, his back was towards me. He turned when he heard me. His eyes looked so calm and serene, like lake water. I wasn't scared anymore.

He walked up to me and kissed me. This time it was fierce, completely in contrast with how calm his eyes were. This time he didn't leave me longing.


End file.
